Cubs Single Game Tickets on Sale Friday

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Feb 22, 2011 5:40PM

While last season saw more than a few no shows at some late season games, there's no reason to expect that tickets to see the Cubs play at Wrigley won't remain among the hardest to come by in all of Chicago — except for maybe Bears-Packers playoff tickets. With the players still in Arizona, Cubs fans are still optimistic that this might be the year for their Cubbies, and even if they're 20 games out come August, at least Wrigley sells beer.

As in past years, tickets are available online, by phone and at the Wrigley Field box office this Friday. Cubs tickets officially go on sale at 8 a.m. at Wrigley and at 10 a.m. for online and phone. To get a place in line at the Wrigley box office you'll need to acquire a wristband ahead of time.

This year they moved up the wristband distribution and started handing them out yesterday. They're also available at Wrigley Field today until 10 p.m. The drawing to determine the order will be held tomorrow instead of the morning ticket sales begin. Around 8 a.m., WGN radio will announce the starting wristband number for ticket sales. For those attempting to buy online, the virtual waiting rooms will open at 9:30 a.m., while phone lines open right at 10 a.m. We've actually known former co-workers who got IT to set them up a virtual waiting room farm with a bunch unused PCs to maximize their chances of landing some good tickets.

But even those of you who get in early on Friday may be disappointed to find the games you had your eyes on sold out already. How's that? While tickets officially go on sale on Friday, the Cubs are again offering the MasterCard First Chance Pre-Sale starting at noon tomorrow. For those of you willing to pony up an additional 20% (only 15% more if you use your MasterCard), tickets can be bought before they officially go on sale. Yes, the Cubs are (still) scalping tickets directly to their fans. While only a limited number of tickets for each home game are available during the MasterCard pre-sale, it'll still make it that much harder to snag those White Sox or Cardinals tickets without ponying up an extra 15-20% on top of the premium game ticket prices.